“Pride in our School.” The idea behind this comes from the community spirit/commitment necessary to sustain public schools. Call it the social contract. In my small, rural northern California community, two threats to the success (dare I say existence) of traditional public education are: No Child Left Behind (“NCLB”) and charter schools/school choice. Fortunately, NCLB is not long for this world.

My message: send your kids to your local/closest public school, not a charter; second, if you think a charter school or out-of-district school is a good idea, at least try your local public school first. Investigate your local school by meeting with administration, staff, teachers, and elected school board trustees. Please carefully consider the benefits of sharing your little blessing(s) (your child/children), along your your own hopes, dreams, and invaluable energy with your community (school). It’s a win-win!

Sending kids to the local public school allows parents and their children to learn about their very own community in the deepest and most intimate ways possible. It’s similar to attending church, except 5 days a week instead of one day a week — for those who even attend church. Our children are our ambassadors. They pull us from our other duties and onto the schools grounds, playgrounds, and the playing fields of our towns. This is how my family has come to know so many others in our community. This daily contact in the midst of the push-me-pull-you, hustle-bustle world we live in is a blessing we share, and one that is being threatened by school choice, among other things.

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I wish that were a good idea for all of us. But this testing mania has made public schools pretty painful lately. Also, my son is Black (and Latino, but Black is what people see). Black boys are over-diagnosed as ADHD. My son is very active, and very definitely not ADHD. I felt there was a significant risk that his (lovely) boisterous behavior would lead to issues in a public school.

I also have issues with the consumerism and bullying that are prevalent in public schools. My son went to a ‘free school’ until it closed, and now is at a friend’s home, in an ‘unschool’ with about 7 kids.

“Our children are our ambassadors.” This only makes sense if they can do this without harm to themselves.

Did a doctor diagnose him as ADHD? I thought they only used the term ADD now. Also, the school districts cannot label someone ADD, only a medical professional can. His boisterous behavior would lead to problems in any school setting, not just public. The charters and private schools are less tolerant of boisterous students.

Yes, every child is different and some just won’t do well or fit in with the social and/or academic climate in your neighborhood school.

But please remember the actual text of the reader’s letter. It implicitly acknowledges your concerns: “if you think a charter school or out-of-district school is a good idea, at least TRY your local public school first.”

My spouse and I did our homework, starting not one but TWO full years prior to enrolling our son in Kindergarten. We considered every school in our area, visited, spoke with teachers, principals, parents of older children at the schools, and delved deep into the data charts available within minutes at the click of a mouse.

And after some initial skepticism—there were numerous negative anecdotes and personal horror stories, as there were with every school—we ended up choosing the neighborhood school, just blocks from our home. And we couldn’t be happier. We’re glad we gave it a try.

Until we enrolled our son there, I had no idea who our neighbors were, just a block or two away. We’ve connected as a community, through our children and it has been wonderful for every member of our family.

So, while I understand and respect what you’re saying, please understand that what was written here doesn’t exclude the possibility that your child might require something more and/or different.

It’s good that your the type of parent who is conscious about these issues. Your son will undoubtedly do better, wherever he’s enrolled, because of you.

This is exactly what was happening in Nashville for several decades after a desegregation lawsuit. At the very least, there was de facto segregation which created “white” and “black” schools. But there is a lot to the history of school desegregation in Nashville which may interest Dr. Ravitch.

One size does not fit all and never will. I really liked the idea shared by another writer somewhere here on Diane’s blog a day or two ago. The opposite of “individualized” is “standardized.” What an eye opener. As teachers we owe it to our students and ourselves to make sure that kids love to learn and that school is a socially and intellectually rewarding, inspiring, challenging and ultimately pleasant experience.

My first thought was that this advice does reinforce the ses segregation present in housing in the US.

My public school district is not subject to a desegregation order, but my children were not assigned to the closest schools by the district. The closest Jr high is 1.5 miles away and would be a safe walk, the Jr high they were assigned to was 2.1 miles away and an unsafe walk. The nearest high school is 2.1 miles from my home, but the high school they were assigned to is 3.6 miles from my home.

A lot of schools in NYC are more segregated than the neighborhood they’re situated in. Some of that is probably due to school choice (private schools, charter schools, selective admission schools outside the neighborhood). But a lot of is is also due to people who move out of the city and to places like Greenwich and Scarsdale, where they send their kids to “the local public school.” It must be a beautiful thing to watch those children learn about Greenwich and Scarsdale “in the deepest and most intimate ways possible.”

Investigate your local school by meeting with administration, staff, teachers, and elected school board trustees.

Dear administrator, teacher, or trustee,

Each new first grader in your schools has a $1,275,447 lifetime share of the national debt. Realistically, what percentage of that share will that student be repaying? Will it be less than 100%? Over 100%? How have reforms adopted by your schools changed that percentage?

I had both my kids (now adults) in public schools because I thought I could help advocate for better education. I was wrong and wasted time sitting on committees year after year where I contributed ideas backed by education research, but I was not heard and basically ignored. That was still in the “harmless” days before NCLB when schools were still child friendly with recess, hands-on learning and playtime in kindergarten.

Now, all schools in my town are following the same rigid schedule without recess, without play in K grades, without hands-on learning, but with a mind numbing scripted literacy curriculum instead. There is no way I would subject my kids to that had they still been school age today!! My hope is that my son and his wife will not enroll their little boy if things have not changed for the better by the time he is five. I would much prefer they’d let me homeschool him.

One of the objectives of the privatizers is to reinforce the “Mall Mentality” that so many of us just act on, unconsciously. The entire goal is to get us to see education as a “product” to “choose”—like we would with a new pair of sandals at a giant retailer.

What’s MY “return on investment” for MY kid? How come I’m paying for YOU, “teacher”, and I can’t just “can you, like my boss can can ME, anytime, for any reason?”. What am I getting for MY money?”

And the reason that the privatizers are trying to drill this into us with words like “choice” and “investment” and “accountability” is that they realize that community, cooperation and mutual support are CRITICAL if a public school is to survive, let alone thrive.

Privatizers WANT people to be suspicious of the people running their schools and ultra-competitive with each other. They want people looking for advantage and focused exclusively on self-interest, resulting in an obsession with “MY KID!”—and implicitly “NOT YOUR KID!”

Privatizers live for the image of parents bickering, breaking into factions, and running for the exits after they maliciously pay someone to yell “FIRE!” in the equivalent of a very crowded theatre.

Like the crowd during the bank run in “It’s A Wonderful Life”, will we panic and sell out to Potter, “for at least HALF of MY MONEY” or will we stick together, realizing that our strength comes from standing WITH one another, united for ALL of “OUR KIDS”?

If you listen to people long enough, they (we) will identify the problems AND the solutions.

Problem:
Suevanhattum- this testing mania, the consumerism and bullying
Cheryl-One size does not fit all and never will
Conny Jensen- wasted time sitting on committees year after year where I contributed ideas backed by education research, but I was not heard and basically ignored.

Solution:
Puget Sound Parent – community, cooperation and mutual support are CRITICAL if a public school is to survive, let alone thrive.
Cheryl- individualized -we owe it to our students and ourselves to make sure that kids love to learn and that school is a socially and intellectually rewarding, inspiring, challenging and ultimately pleasant experience.

But there is one statement here, Diane, which makes my blood run hot “Fortunately, NCLB is not long for this world.” My God, look at what is replacing it! The plutocrats and profiteers are having a hay day state-by-state just as they did with the testing and “accountability” movement pre-NCLB. Where waivers are granted, look closer at what it might do if we don’t understand. I’m just getting my first look at it in Idaho! It isn’t easy when State Dept people are not forthcoming with data.

So, what does it mean when I’m sending my child to a local public school–but it’s not my neighborhood school (that got closed due to budget cuts and low enrollment; it’s an aging neighborhood) and it’s not the next-closest school to which we would have been assigned? Or rather, we aren’t attending the the school to which my oldest was originally assigned (she tested into the district’s GT Center beginning in first grade and it is located in the public school in which we choice-enrolled in kindergarten. Testing in means that her assigned school is now the one she’s at, as there are a limited number of GT Centers in the district. My youngest will also choice-enroll in kindergarten into her sister’s school (the GT Center is 1-6, not K-6, and she shows every sign of being a candidate). But, it’s a public school, not a charter school and I appreciate having the option of choosing a different neighborhood school when our own doesn’t meet our needs.

We originally looked at our current school for two reasons: (1) our neighborhood school only offered full-day kindergarten and my oldest was not ready, socially or emotionally, for a full day of school; and, (2) our current school offered a K-6 strings program. My oldest had been taking violin lessons since she turned 4 and the opportunity to play with the beginning strings class in kindergarten and join the intermediate orchestra in first great was too great to pass up. She’s in second grade now, just turned 8, and plays with the advanced orchestra. The closest public school doesn’t offer strings instruction until 5th grade–which would put her 7 years ahead of her peers. (For the record, the nearby charter schools don’t offer orchestra or anything other than the typical ALP/pull-out GT stuff, which also made them less attractive than our current, but not neighborhood public school.)

Some of this may seem like snobbery, but it’s not. My oldest started taking violin lessons both because she saw it on Sesame Street and thought it looked fun, and also because she was a clinically-anxious who wanted nothing to do with preschool. I didn’t see a point to forcing her to go to preschool; she was not in danger of not being academically ready and we were working with her on the social aspect. (Full disclosure: mom is a music prof, so all music is good!) As far as the GT thing goes, my husband and I were ourselves GT kids, but our only enrichment came in the form of a once-a-week pull-out class. I spent most of elementary and middle school bored out of my mind; it was only when we moved to a larger district and I was able to attend honors classes in high school where the whole class was full of people like me that I was able to be challenged and thrive socially. It always stinks to be the “smart one” in the class and have very few friends. Having our daughter surrounded by similar classmates who won’t make fun of her for her strengths–while also being humbled by similar classmates who have strengths in areas she doesn’t–is a really valuable experience in our opinion.

If you really want to help improve your neighborhood school, you need to read Victoria M. Young’s book The Crucial Voice of the People, Past and Present: Education’s Missing Ingredient. It’s written by a parent who was involved in her children’s school. She gives an in-depth analysis of why education reforms keep failing as long as parent, community, and expert voices keep being excluded.

When my children attended public schools the last thing they wanted was my voice. Volunteering meant that I had to keep hush hush if my friends child was in trouble and sitting in the office. Oh no, we don’t want mom to know about that… the school will deal with it. Having to deal with rude bus drivers, teachers that were over workers, some not wanting to work, fighting for IEPs, safety issues for children, passing them on when they can’t read… no thanks… I am not forcing my children into that environment for the sake of ” saving the public school”… actually I am disgusted that someone would tell another parent to not send their child to a charter school. It is up to the parent to make those decisions. IMO, EVERY child has a price tag on their head, and the NEA (public school systems) do not want to give up even a penny. Forget the fact that they schools are proving to not be safe, forget the fact that monthly we see teachers sleeping with students, forget the fact that they are moving them through the schools without the proper education needed to compete for jobs in this economy, forget the fact that the great teachers that are in the schools are NOT allowed to be teachers.. they teach to a test, follow a book, pay out of their own pockets for a system that does not pay them enough.. and yes, even our teachers in the schools are not safe from the very kids they teach in some areas…. Personally, I will pass. There are other options out there and it is time to realize that teachers that want to teach and students who want to learn have other options out there….